Former Aide Echoes Charges

Against School Superintendent

A former aide to Schools Superintendent Monica Uhlhorn has supported charges by three fired employees that Uhlhorn attempted to hide information from School Board members and made racial slurs about district employees.

Uhlhorn on Wednesday denied the allegations and said any comments she made were misconstrued as racial.

Nora Rosensweig, Uhlhorn's former executive assistant who is now principal at Christa McAuliffe Middle School in Boynton Beach, testified in federal court in Miami on Tuesday.

The testimony came in a whistleblower suit in which the three fired officials - Jeeti Puri, Tony Keller and Cosima Costa - are seeking immediate reinstatement while awaiting an April trial.

Rosensweig said Uhlhorn had referred to black employees as "their kind of people" and "them," attorneys in the case said.

Uhlhorn says that if she made such comments, they would not have been racially based, but simply would have referred to a group of employees.

"You're not necessarily referring to a person's race," Uhlhorn said. "Sometimes people that for one reason or another believe differently, you might say something [about them)."

Uhlhorn said she stands by her sworn statements that she has never made comments about people because of their race.

Ann Iles, president of the West Palm Beach chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, renewed calls for the School Board to begin an independent investigation into the charges of racism.

"As long as there are doubts in people's minds, people aren't going to trust her," Iles said. "It has a ripple effect. ... I get complaints all the time from the schools. If the head isn't on straight, to expect the body to be on straight is deluding oneself."

But School Board member Gail Bjork said she had trouble believing Rosensweig's testimony.

"I absolutely never have heard, nor could I believe, that Dr. Uhlhorn was capable of uttering such racial slurs," Bjork said.

Rosensweig also testified about two November meetings that she attended with Uhlhorn and others. In one, Rosensweig said, Uhlhorn instructed those present not to discuss a projected $20 million surplus, which Puri said could be used for teacher pay raises.

Uhlhorn said the meeting was nothing more than a brainstorming session and she did not want the suggestions to take on lives of their own.

"In this county, when something gets out of a room, it becomes inflexible," Uhlhorn said. Rosensweig did testify that Uhlhorn never ordered any documents destroyed, attorneys said.

Rosensweig also testified about a second meeting at which Puri threatened to blow the whistle on Uhlhorn about alleged improprieties, said John Chamblee, an attorney representing the fired employees. Bjork also attended the meeting and has said no such statement was made.

"I unequivocally stand by my sworn statement that Mr. Puri did not, absolutely did not discuss anything about blowing the whistle," Bjork said. "Mrs. Rosensweig was in the meeting for such a short time, it's incredible to me that she could even make such a charge."

Board member Jody Gleason said she had no reason to doubt Uhlhorn and Bjork.

"We have to look at the credibility of all the witnesses," she said.

"We need to look at what [Uhlhorn) is actually doing for children. Is she focusing on children? That should be our motivating factor, the primary question for all of us."

"This is a very sad day in regard to the nature of employer and employee relations in the district," said Anderson, who announced last month that he would not seek re-election this fall, days after it became public that Anderson had attended meetings to discuss the whistleblowers' charges. Anderson has been a staunch critic of the superintendent.

"What is implied by way of her testimony is that employees have not been treated fairly by the administration," he said.